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Project Submission: Block Island Wind Farm
Mr. Hall founded Keystone Engineering in 1988 and his team successfully designed the foundations for the first offshore wind farm in the U.S., Block Island Wind Farm. Keystone’s involvement started in 2004 and was followed by UK Carbon Trust Offshore Wind Accelerator, which lead to its formal entrance and expansion into the emerging offshore wind industry in 2009 by involvement in Cape Wind Project.
Under Mr. Hall’s direction and technical supervision, Keystone engineers designed the jackets for the first offshore wind farm in the US, Block Island Wind Farm which went into commission in 2016. The wind farm supplies 30 megawatts of power to about 17,000 homes. Block Island Wind Farm was crucial for the reduction of carbon emissions of Block Island but in addition, it is a monumental project and the official start of the offshore wind industry in the U.S. Keystone recognized that the commercial viability of this trailblazing project would determine the future of offshore wind developments in the U.S., and it was vital to optimize the national and local supply chain in addition to a robust design of jackets.
In 2002, Mr. Hall filed a patent for the innovative minimal foundation design, called the twisted jacket or Inward Battered Guide Structure (IBGS). The patented twisted jacket was installed in the Gulf of Mexico for ExxonMobil in 2005 and survived Hurricane Katrina with no damage despite the proximity to the eye of the hurricane. Mr. Hall revised the patented twisted jacket to implementation for offshore wind, which resulted in an innovative foundation concept that has been identified by the U.S. Department of Energy and the European renewables community (UK Carbon Trust) as a leading solution for the next generation of offshore wind turbine foundations.
In addition to Block Island Wind Farm, Mr. Hall spearheaded the efforts of his offshore renewables team for the secondary steel design of Cape Wind Project, VOWTAP, and Fishermen’s Energy from 2009 to the present. Although none of these projects was constructed, they each played a significant role in the growth and advancement of the offshore wind industry in the U.S.
Project Submission: OpenFAST Design Code Enabling Floating Offshore Wind
Dr. Jason Jonkman is nominated for outstanding contributions he made to help launch the floating offshore wind industry. For 20 years, Dr. Jonkman worked to originate, engineer, maintain, and optimize FAST, one of the world’s first engineering computer design tools specifically developed to assess coupled dynamic loading on floating wind turbines.The FAST innovation led the way for the first generation of floating wind turbines and continues to serve the industry today as a principal asset.
In 2002 the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) first recognized offshore wind and tasked the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) with initiating an offshore wind research program. At this time, floating wind turbines were considered fringe technology studied only by a few with very little physics-based evidence of viability. The DOE vision was to explore the feasibility of floating wind technology, a job which came to rest on Jason Jonkman.
Jason spent many years, while gaining his PhD, reworking and upgrading the clunky land-based wind turbine dynamics code, FAST, and creating a new offshore code. By 2005, this uber FAST code could now simulate wave actions, anchor system dynamics, coupled floating platform dynamics and integrate the advanced controls needed to stabilize the complex system motions. His early work was so important and respected that it was followed by many European researchers. For 20 years, Dr. Jonkman worked to originate, engineer, maintain, and optimize the FAST Code, now called OpenFAST, one of the world’s first engineering computer design tools specifically developed to assess coupled dynamic loading on floating wind turbines.
At the first European offshore wind conference in Copenhagen in 2005, Jason co-founded an international research project on offshore code evaluation sponsored by IEA Wind, Task 30, which continues today under the leadership of NREL’s Dr. Amy Robertson. This IEA project, known as the Offshore Codes Comparison Collaborative, led to improvements in all offshore analysis codes worldwide, due in a large part to Jason’s work and leadership. This industry-wide quality assurance process remains a critical pillar of the offshore wind industry today. In addition, Jason has served continuously on the IEC TC-88 61400-3-1 offshore wind design standards committee to ensure it contains the latest design practices followed by designers.
Because of Jason’s work, the NREL/DOE’s offshore wind research is among the best in the world. His work provided robust stability to the NREL offshore wind program even while federal support for offshore wind wavered. He is considered the most knowledgeable floating offshore turbine analyst in the world. His work with FAST has given the industry a transparent, open-source design tool which is second to none and will be recognized by experts for decades.
Project Submission: OSW Mesh Ready Transmission Alternative
New York State’s Climate Act enshrines the nation’s most aggressive energy transition targets, including achieving 70 percent renewable electricity generation by 2030, 100 percent renewable electricity by 2040, and economy wide decarbonization by 2050. In support of those targets the Climate Act calls for 9 GW of offshore wind by 2035, for which the New York Public Service Commission (the Commission), authorized NYSERDA to hold initial procurements for offshore wind projects with direct and dedicated radial interconnections in the Order Establishing Offshore Wind Standard and Framework for Phase 1 Procurement.
The New York State Power Grid Study was published in January 2021 and includes the “Offshore Wind Integration Study” (OSW Study) examining offshore transmission configurations which can support the integration of at least 9GW of offshore wind generation into New York City and Long Island.
NYSERDA was tasked with conflicting objectives of maintaining regular procurements to reach the State’s 9 GW target while also not impeding future development of offshore wind and reaching the Climate Act’s broad de-carbonization goals. With the mission of maintaining optionality for future transmission systems as described in the Power Grid Study, NYSERDA sought to explore creative transmission solutions which will support the state in pivoting from a dedicated radial interconnection for each offshore wind project to a future offshore wind network, and contacted Brattle, Hatch and Siemens (the Team) to evaluate a range of transmission alternatives.
As a creative solution, the Team developed a Mesh Ready design that, if incorporated into new OSW installation solicitations, would preserve New York State’s option to complete a future offshore grid. By requiring every new OSW installation to be Mesh Ready at minimal up-front cost, New York State will gain flexibility to continue a steady pace of procurement without sacrificing the opportunity cost or operability of a future meshed offshore transmission system.
Because of the sound design and compelling economic evidence presented in the Mesh Ready approach, the Commission authorized NYSERDA to include Mesh Ready design in future procurements in the January 2022 Order on Power Grid Study Recommendations. This requirement was included in Request for Proposals ORECRFP22-1, released on July 27, 2022. A technical appendix guiding the operational parameters of Meshed Ready was also released with the ORECRFP22-1 With its inclusion in the 2022 and future offshore wind solicitations, the Mesh-ready design will become commercialized and has become a model for the rest of the offshore wind industry to utilize and adapt.
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At the Oceantic Network, formerly known as the Business Network for Offshore Wind, our driving purpose is to inform, coordinate, and mobilize human ingenuity, enterprise, and labor to take advantage of the urgent need to tap the vast renewable energy resources that lie offshore in the world’s oceans. The collective, coordinated efforts of our members equip communities and nations to accelerate the transition to clean energy and create economic opportunities.
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